West Palm Beach nursing home abuse lawyer Tag Archives

Published on: November 19, 2018

Do I Have a Choice About Florida Nursing Home Arbitration? Palm Beach Injury Lawyer Answers

Florida nursing home arbitration agreements have become increasingly the norm for most for-profit centers that care for the aging, making them a central point of contention in many nursing home injury and wrongful death lawsuits. The law is not exactly settled, but a few Florida Supreme Court decisions in recent years have provided guidance upon which many Palm Beach injury lawyers have relied in determining whether it’s worth fighting to invalidate an arbitration agreement or instead work within that system.

Arbitration agreements fall under contract law, which as long as both parties are able, willing and not coerced or defrauded, have almost always been ruled valid. However in recent years, Palm Beach injury attorneys have noted a number of reasons Florida nursing home arbitration agreements are problematic. Among those:

Residents must choose between their legal rights and proper care.
Residents may not always be fully aware of what they are signing or the fact that the arbitration process usually favors nursing homes.
Arbitration allows nursing homes to keep shameful acts and incidents out of the public eye.
Discovering the outcome of an arbitration is tough if not impossible, as they are confidential and no database stores them.

In general, our Palm Beach nursing home injury and wrongful death lawyers don’t recommend signing an arbitration agreement if it can be avoided. If a client has one in place in a nursing home abuse case, we’ll generally explore our options to determine if there is a way to invalidate that agreement. Continue reading →

Published on: November 15, 2017

Lawmakers Research Florida Nursing Home Camera Bill

By Dean Freeman

Increasingly, relatives of Florida nursing home residents are installing cameras inside the rooms of their loved ones to ensure they are receiving quality care. Fears of inadequate nursing home care and even nursing home abuse are certainly founded, as the Government Accountability Office reports a quarter of U.S. nursing homes have deficiencies that cause actual harm or have the potential to inflict serious injury or death. Further, a survey of more than a dozen states found state and federal complaint procedures lacking, meaning at-risk patients suffered abuse and neglect in silence for months.

The idea of hidden cameras in nursing homes isn’t brand new, but it’s garnering renewed attention from Florida lawmakers. ABC-10 News in Broward County reports that family members of a nursing home resident in Pompano Beach installed a camera inside the room of their 94-year-old patriarch, who suffers from dementia. They were horrified at the images that returned.

The video reveals a certified nursing assistant (CNA) who is impatiently and forcefully trying to get the man to move off the bed. She pulls him, and sends him falling into a chair. She then hits him on the head. In a separate clip, the same nursing home worker is witnessed pouring mouthwash on him. Aside from the obvious cruelty of the act, the family’s nursing home abuse attorney explained it was one that ultimately proved fatal. Alcohol is a drying agent. The man reportedly was already suffering from Stage 3 pressure ulcers. Ultimately, it was those ulcers that killed him, plaintiff attorney alleges. Continue reading →

Published on: August 2, 2016

Mandatory Nursing Home Arbitration Ban Not Part of New Proposed Rule

By Dean Freeman

Despite forceful calls by House Democrats and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s (CFPB) for a ban on mandatory nursing home arbitration agreements earlier this year, the new proposed rule by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) doesn’t contain any such provision.

The agency has toyed with requiring such a measure in the past, but it’s most recent proposed rule, while acknowledging “concerns” about forced arbitration, doesn’t go so far as to ban it.

This move was sharply criticized by The New York Times’ Editorial Board in an opinion titled, “Nursing Home Residents Still Vulnerable to Abuse.” Continue reading →

Published on: June 22, 2015

Ex parte Fairfield Nursing & Rehabilitation Ctr. – Dropped Nursing Home Patient

By Dean Freeman

Many nursing home residents are unable to walk or unable to walk any significant differences. Often, they use wheelchairs and require assistance to perform basic tasks, such as going to the restroom, bathing and getting in and out of bed.

Although there are accepted industry protocols for the best and safest way to move patients, these procedures aren’t always followed. When facilities are understaffed, caregivers are often inexperienced, rushed or simply careless when it comes to moving patients. This results in nursing home patients being dropped, most often during routine transfers.

When a nursing home resident is dropped, it can lead to serious health complications, including:

Continue reading →

Published on: October 6, 2014

Florida Nursing Home Neglect, Mismanagement Allegedly Led to Death

By Dean Freeman

The personal representative of a Florida woman who died last year in a Lakeland nursing home alleges medical complications leading to her death were preventable, the result of systematic neglect and mismanagement of the facility.

According to the lawsuit, the elderly woman suffered from a host of painful conditions she developed only after she was admitted as a resident at the facility in April 2011. She died almost exactly two years later. Among conditions she suffered at the time of her death:

Bedsores;

Continue reading →